Making something out of nothing

21.10.2012

Kevin finishes sixth in a car lacking both topspeed and traction

Kevin Korjus finished first WSR race at Barcelona in P6 having
started from ninth on the grid. After good practice pace on Friday (Kevin was second in the dry-weather session) it was
a rather modest result. For some reasons both Lotus cars mysteriously lost their
speed overnight – with a track about second per lap faster, Kevin and his
team-mate were slower than day before. Maybe both sets of tyres of both cars
were not the best ones but then Lotuses had also the lowest top-speed.

Kevin's qualifying was once again influenced by yellow and
red flags. He stood fourth after first runs but eventual P9 was certainly a disappointment.
Gaps were narrow and at least P7 would have been possible.

Kevin got excellent take-off at the start of the race and almost climbed up to sixth but lack of top-speed meant he had to content with P7. From there on the race
itself was rather processional until the penultimate lap when fifth-placed Jules Bianchi saw a
chance which actually wasn’t there. Bianchi tumbled down to 7th as a result and
Kevin overtook him. Sixth place may not look great but in a car lacking both
traction and top-speed it was a great achievement.

Kevin: „It was obvious from the very first laps in the
morning that we had no grip today. We made some adjustments to the car during
the qualification but even so P7 would have been the maximum.

At the start of the race I overtook two cars and was already
past Will Stevens, but he retook his 6th place just
driving by because of better topspeed. Then I just tried to keep myself in the wake of Jules Bianchi and Stevens. Robin Frijns and Kevin Magnussen initally drove away from us but
towards the end we managed to catch them again. Then Bianchi tried to outbrake Magnussen but overcooked it monumentally. I overtook him and was already alonside Magnussen to
take fifth but had to lift in order to avoid a collision. “